According to city estimates, about 1.1 million people walked through the gates at the festival, which was open for four days instead of a scheduled five. City officials decided to close Taste all day Saturday after heavy morning rains left standing water they feared would cause problems with electricity in food preparation areas.

All told, an estimated 1.5 million people attended Taste last year, and 1.2 million came through in 2012, according to the city.

The weekend days at Taste have become particularly key for restaurateurs hoping to recoup their investment since 2012, when Mayor Rahm Emanuel cut the lakefront pig-out from 10 days to five and moved it to mid-July, away from the prime Independence Day weekend.

The city does not yet have numbers for whether it broke even on the shortened summer gala. After losing $1.3 million in 2012, Taste turned a profit of about $272,000 last year.

Emanuel turned to new money-making endeavors to help Taste’s bottom line, selling some tickets for the nightly concerts for between $18 and $50 this year, and also offering daily $45 meals prepared by renowned local chefs. The city will refund any tickets for Saturday events, according to Mary May, spokeswoman for the city Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

Saturday would have likely drawn especially big crowds because of planned performances by hometown favorite Jeff Tweedy of Wilco and alt-country singer Lucinda Williams, who instead played a free concert at a small South Loop club.

Tweedy and Williams were both paid for their canceled Saturday performances, and both will keep that money under terms of their contracts, May said. She did not know how much the singers were paid.

Some vendors said they were considering asking the city to reimburse them for lost revenue after the festival stayed closed even though the weather had improved by early Saturday afternoon. But May said the restaurants and the city were all taking a gamble on the weather, saying in an email that “we all assume risk.”

The recent Taste crowds have nothing on its heyday. In 2008, when the 10-day fest featured Stevie Wonder among its musical acts, the event drew about 3.5 million people, according to the Illinois Restaurant Association.

The July 3 Grant Park fireworks regularly pulled in crowds of around 1 million, but then-Mayor Richard M. Daley replaced them with three smaller pyrotechnics displays in 2010 and Emanuel scrapped them altogether in 2011.

A storm system that moved through northeast Illinois early Saturday morning dropped heavy rain, closing down Taste of Chicago for the day and flooding communities in the area's south and southwest suburbs. More rain is on the way tonight.

Taste of Chicago reopens Sunday after weather caused the event to close Saturday. Kristina Grant, of Carbondale, uses an umbrella for protection from the sun -- and not the rain -- while her friend Danielle Terrell, of Oak Park, enjoys an ear of corn.